The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a

college athletic conference In college athletics in the United States, institutions typically join in conferences for regular play under different governing bodies. Varsity sports There are several national and regional associations governing the varsity teams of colleges ...

comprising schools that compete in 15

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

(13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from Maine to South Carolina and west to Missouri. Most or all members belong to at least one other

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

. The ECAC was founded as the Central Office for Eastern Intercollegiate Athletics in 1938, largely through the efforts of

James Lynah James Lynah (1881 – February 24, 1956) was an American businessman and sports administrator who is considered the principal founder of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Lynah Rink is named in his honor. Early years Born in Charl ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. In 1983, the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) was consolidated into the ECAC. Most member schools are in other conferences as well, but through the ECAC they are able to participate in sports that their main conferences do not offer. Its headquarters are located in

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

. The ECAC also now offers esports competitions to its member schools.

Membership

Division I

As of spring 2018, there are 87 Division I members.

Division II

As of spring 2018, there are 26 Division II members.

Division III

As of spring 2018, there are 107 Division III members.

Affiliates

The ECAC has several affiliated single-sport leagues: *

Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen men's college rowing crews. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members Eighteen colleges and universities are member ...

Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen women's college rowing crew teams. The conference is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members :''See footnote''< ...

* ECAC Equestrian *

Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League The Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (EIGL) is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference which sponsors men’s gymnastics. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members :''See footnote'' * Army Black ...

Intercollegiate Rowing Association The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) governs intercollegiate rowing between varsity men's heavyweight, men's lightweight, and women's lightweight rowing programs across the United States, while the NCAA fulfills this role for women's ope ...

* Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes in America * ECAC Lacrosse League (defunct) *

ECAC Division II Lacrosse League The Eastern College Athletic Conference Division II Lacrosse League, also known as the ECAC Division II Lacrosse League, was an American NCAA Division II college athletic conference and part of the Eastern College Athletic Conference that only sp ...

(defunct) *

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

(independent since 2004)

Sports

ECAC men's basketball tournaments

At various times, the ECAC has organized regional

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

championship tournaments at the end of the regular season for teams playing at the NCAA Division I, Division II, and

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

levels. It held the Division I tournaments from 1975 to 1982 to provide independent colleges and universities in the northeastern United States with a means of participating in end-of-season tournaments that resulted in the winning team receiving an automatic bid to the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

, similar to the end-of-season tournaments held by conventional athletic conferences. The Division I ECAC tournaments were discontinued after all participating schools joined conferences of their own during the late 1970s and early 1980s.Varsity Pride: ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments
The ECAC also held combined Division II/III regional end-of- season tournaments from 1973 to 1980 and a single Division II-only tournament after the regular season from 1988 to 2006 and in 2007, 2008, and 2014. Since 1981, it has organized regional Division III-only men's basketball tournaments annually at the end of each regular season.

ECAC Division III football bowls

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, the ECAC organizes six

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

s each year, three in its North region and three in its South region. The conference selects six ECAC member teams from the North region and six teams from the South region to participate in the bowls and seeds them one through six in each region, with the top three seeds in each region serving as the host institutions for the games. *North Region: **ECAC Northwest Bowl **ECAC North Atlantic Bowl **ECAC Northeast Bowl *South Region: **ECAC Southwest Bowl **ECAC South Atlantic Bowl **ECAC Southeast Bowl

Awards

:''See footnotes'' * Div. I FBS Football Major Awards * Div. I FCS Football Major Awards * Div II Football Major Awards * Div. III Football Major Awards *Robbins Scholar-Athletes *Award of Merit (for student-athletes) *Award of Valor (for student-athletes) *ECAC Rowing TrophyECAC Awards and Honors: ECAC Rowing Trophy
ECAC official website. Retrieved 2010-03-03.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 41, 38, 34, N, 70, 20, 47.48, W, display=title Sports leagues established in 1938 1938 establishments in the United States